[free-sklyarov] Anybody here own a town? 1201(e)

[Karsten M. Self]

There's an interesting, if possibly unweildy, hole in the DMCA, in
section 1201(e), the law enforcement, intelligence, and other government
activities.  The exemption here applies to "the United States, a State,
or a political subdivision of a State", or "a person acting pursuant to
a contract with" [a qualified political unit].  The exemption applies to
"any lawfully authorized investigative, protective, information
security, or intelligence activity", and the last term is broadly
defined:  ''information security'' means activities carried out in
order to identify and address the vulnerabilities of a government
computer, computer system, or computer network.

    http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/1201.html

Seems to me that we need to find ourselves a small town somewhere which
can deputize the lot of us to perform "information security" assessments
of various computers, computer systems, or computer networks.  Since the
community itself is widely distributed, uses a broad range of computer
applications, and communicates largely over the Internet, this provides
a broad scope for activity, and a sound basis for communicating findings
and discoveries in an open channel.

Food for thought at any rate.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>          http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?             There is no K5 cabal
  http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/               http://www.kuro5hin.org
   Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA!    http://www.freesklyarov.org
Geek for Hire                        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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